D'var Torah

Our Angels

Genesis Chapter 32

4. Jacob sent angels ahead of him to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.   5. And he commanded them, saying, "So shall you say to my master to Esau, 'Thus said your servant Jacob, "I have sojourned with Laban, and I have tarried until now.   6. And I have acquired oxen and donkeys, flocks, manservants, and maidservants, and I have sent to tell [this] to my master, to find favor in your eyes.' "   7. The angels returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother, to Esau, and he is also coming toward you, and four hundred men are with him."   8. Jacob became very frightened and was distressed; so he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the cattle and the camels into two camps.   9. And he said, "If Esau comes to one camp and strikes it down, the remaining camp will escape."   10. And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord, Who said to me, 'Return to your land and to your birthplace, and I will do good to you.'   11. I have become small from all the kindnesses and from all the truth that You have rendered Your servant, for with my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.   12. Now deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him, lest he come and strike me, [and strike] a mother with children.   13. And You said, 'I will surely do good with you, and I will make your seed [as numerous] as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of multitude.'"             

Angels - what do we believe? Are there any? If so, what is their function?

Sometimes we believe that there is "the hand or the finger of God" pointing us in this or that direction. At times it is so obvious that it takes no leap of faith to believe it.

We call it "coincidence" or happenstance or luck or even a fluke. But we know when it happens.

This week's parasha identifies angels in the Jacob-Esau narrative. These particular angels report to Jacob as he's about to meet Esau with 100 men. A warning - Jacob became "distressed and frightened." Wouldn't you or I?! After all, in Jacob's eyes, this is it.

But why do they appear then? Why NOT during the deception? Or at any stage along the way?

Maybe one interpretation is that the angels appear when we need them the most. When there is unclarity of direction or decision or choice.

Jacob may not have been feeling the regret or depth of feeling he should have at that moment. He needed to be re-directed, refocused. He needed to consider what he had done, take Esau's point of view even for a moment.

Maybe that's what angels do - they refocus us. They push us gently onto the right path. Maybe they are all around us. If we only listen.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Mark Kram

No prior knowledge of the Bible stores or of psychodrama is required!  Just bring openness and a beginner's mind! 

Presented by Rabbi Mark Kram and Nancy Kirsner, Ph.D., Psychodramatist.  The program is entitled "Bibliodrama: Midrash in Action," and is a form of role-playing in which the roles are taken from Biblical texts.  Enacted and enlivened in the present, this form of interpretive play is often called the action version of the Midrash.  The roles may be characters, objects, images or scenes from the Bible.

We have all read these Hebrew Bible stories for many years.  Today we will "step into the shoes" of ech of these Biblical characters and experience their lives from the inside out.

For more information, please call the Temple at 305-235-1419, or call Dr. Nancy Kirsner at 305-274-8283.

Bibliophiles Alert!

Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Library

will host it's annual Book Sale on Wednesday, December 12 through Saturday, December 15.

The sale takes place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, December 12, through Saturday, December 15, at the Main Library, 101 W. Flagler Street, easily accessible via Metrorail's Government Center Station.

For information, call 305-375-4776 or visit 

www.friendsofmdpl.org 

NY Times Religion Columnist/Author of "Jew vs. Jew" to Speak at FIU on Jewish Vote

November 28, 2012, 7 PM, FIU Biscayne Bay Campus | Wolfe University Center Ballroom

Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times religion columnist and author of the acclaimed "Jew vs. Jew" will present "We Aren't One Anymore: Jews as a Wedge Issue in the 2012 Election," at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 28, at Florida International University's North Miami campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In the 2012 presidential election, more so than ever in modern American history, Israel was turned into a wedge issue and American Jews into a voting bloc to be fractured along partisan and ideological lines.

Freedman, whose "Jew vs. Jew" examined schisms and fractures in the Jewish community, will look at these startling, disturbing trends, assessing how they played out on November 6 and what they mean for the future.

Freedman is a professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a former New York Times reporter, has written five books and contributed to the Jerusalem Post, USA Today, New York Magazine, The Forward, Tablet Magazine and Salon, among others.

The lecture will take place in the Wolfe University Center Ballroom at FIU's Biscayne Bay Campus, 3000 NE 151st, North Miami. A pre-lecture reception will begin at 6:30 in the ballroom lobby.

To RSVP, go to http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3197444643

The event is sponsored by the FIU Judaic Studies Program, the FIU School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Scheck Hillel Community School and the Office of the Vice Provost at FIU. Co-sponsors include the student chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists, The Orthodox Union, the FIU School of International and Public Affairs, and the FIU Department of Religious Studies.